Q:“What is the Ironman World Championship Triathlon?
A: “The Ironman Triathlon is a 140.6 mile race consisting of a swim, bike and run. The swim is 2.4 miles, the bike is 112 miles and the run is 26.2 miles.”
Q: How did you qualify for the Ironman World Championship Triathlon and how did it feel?
A:“Well, I did my first Ironman in 2013, and then I went one and ran some stand-alone marathons and I qualified for Boston, so then I decided I should also qualify for the Colossal Marathon. Then I decided I should also qualify for the Ironman World championship and you qualify by being one of the top athletes in your age group. There’s a certain amount of slots allocated for each age group, and if you have a slot available, then you qualify. You have to be at the top of your age group. It was a goal after my first Ironman [which] I kind of just did and was excited, so after my second full Ironman, it became a goal to qualify.”
Q: Did you have to adjust your workout routine for Ironman after qualifying?
A:“It was a lot of work. I basically trained for a year to do Ironman Wisconsin, which is where I qualified for [ the Ironman World Championship]. And then I took a couple weeks off but then jumped right in back in training to be in shape for the Ironman World Championship in Nice, France. It was like two years of pretty continuous training; it was a lot, but no adjustments to my training other than to keep training for another Ironman”
Q:Of all 3 parts, which did you have the most fun with? What was the most challenging?
A:“My favorite is always the run and this race was no exception. I’m a strong runner; I’m a closer [so] I generally go up a lot of spots when I’m running. The most challenging part of this race was the bike because we had to bike up mountains. At one point I had a 12 mile continuous climb, and then going down mountains is scary on a bike. The bike was definitely the most challenging.”
Q:How did you finish overall in the race and how did it feel to cross the finish line?
A:“It was amazing to cross the finish line because it’s a world championship and there’s a big finish-line tunnel you go through.There’s people on each side cheering-that was amazing because it’s a goal. I do not know my exact placement in the age-group. I know it was about [in the middle].”
A:Did you do anything else in France besides the Ironman?
A:“Beforehand it was a lot of race prep stuff and just chilling, but then afterwards we did stuff in France. We played the tutorist. Nice, France has a lot of awesome things to check out, and Castle Hill is one of them. We went to the Portes,Monaco, and Eze [which] used to be a medieval town in France. We went to their Open Air market and basically just toured around Nice and the surrounding area for a couple days afterwards.”
Q:Is there anything you would like to add?
A:“My next goal is to keep on truckin’ for Ironman, so I did the Ironman World Championship in Nice[, France] and now the women and men’s races are separate and every other year they switch locations, it’s between Kailua-Kona(Hawaii) and Nice(France). I did Nice so I would like to do Kailua-Kona [next].
